Women Hospitalized After Fake Butt Implants

Six New Jersey woman are hospitalized after receiving butt-enhancement injections containing the same material contractors use to caulk bathtubs, according to The Star-Ledger.

The women checked into hospitals after their procedures, which were administered by unlicensed providers and the surgeries went horribly wrong, state health officials said. (Sidebar: Maybe not as wrong as these implants).Different from medical-grade silicone, the substance used in the botched procedures was believed to be a diluted version of nonmedical-grade silicone.

"The same stuff you use to put caulk around the bathtub," said Steven M. Marcus, executive and medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, who learned about the bizarre procedures through a committee he sits on that monitors outbreaks in the metropolitan area.

Using over-the-counter silicone can cause abscesses that he said resemble "a big zit."

The state Department of Health and Senior Services did not identify the women or release any details about their ethnicity. It also did not say where the "unlicensed medical provider or providers" performed their procedures.

Investigators have not determined if the six cases, which began to be reported in mid-February, are related, but they have stoked concern among officials that such injuries are more common than previously thought.

The women underwent surgery and were given antibiotics. No arrests have been made.